This section will help you navigate through our vast collection of publications and blogs on mobile phones and telecommunication and the role they play in development.

InterMedia has launched its Haiti Mobile Money Tracker (HMMT) Project with the mission of providing robust research and analysis into the emerging mobile money (m-money) services market. There is only a limited amount of consumer information publicly available to development practitioners to understand how Haitians are using these relatively new services as well as their access to financial services in general. The HMMT Project, through the assistance of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, fills this knowledge gap through survey-based research used to evaluate the development of m-money in Haiti.

mobile access and use trends

Unprecedented growth in mobile phone access in emerging economies is the success story of this decade -­‐-­‐ but what about disadvantaged citizens in these countries who continue to confront a digital divide? In many cases, they also represent the largest potential market for mobile operators. Gayatri Murthy digs into the data so that development practitioners and mobile operators can understand the disparities and opportunities in these countries.

Beyond measuring basic access and use levels, this report works to answer several key research questions regarding the role of mobile phones in economic and social development in Zambia. These include but are not limited to; what is the potential for SMS-based information services as a development tool, is the mobile market beginning to reach disadvantaged populations, what are the continuing barriers to mobile phone access and use, who is using mobile money and is their greater market potential for these services?

There is considerable interest in using mobile phones to increase citizens' access to efficient and affordable financial services in developing countries. The July 2010 AudienceScapes national survey of Tanzania queried respondents on their use and knowledge of mobile money, with a view toward answering two key questions: Who uses these services in Tanzania? Are users mainly those who previously had access to other banking services, or do they include the poorest and the largely unbanked Tanzanians at the so-called “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP)?

A great deal has been written about how in Africa mobile communications and the use of mobile money has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Here the AudienceScapes team seeks to answer the question, how exactly are Ghanains and Kenyans using their mobile money services?

Pakistan, like many other developing countries, has seen an explosion in its mobile communications market in recent years, with new mobile services such as branchless banking and social networks beginning to emerge.

A new study proving the effectiveness of mobile phone technologies in relaying medication adherence information from hypertension patients to healthcare professionals in the U.S. has applications globally. If proven successful, scalable and geographically feasible in diverse locations, such applications can potentially transform health care systems through simple use of one’s mobile phones. AudienceScapes Research Assistant Gayatri Murthy reports....

AudienceScapes overviews the World Bank’s latest study on the use of mobile applications for the health, agriculture and rural development sectors. What makes a successful mobile health project? How does a mobile app project become self-sustaining?

Farmers throughout Africa are using mobile technology to get access to current market information for their crops. Esoko, a Ghanaian software company, is moving from a nonprofit model to a business model to increase the use of its agricultural software. Dinfin Mulupi reports.

As mobile operators build infrastructure and upgrade services, a newcomer launches a free SMS service. If subscribers are willing to put up with ads at the end of their messages, that is. As texting has gotten more expensive in the country, this new product could fill a need. Tawanda Karombo reports

USAID held a panel discussion on mobile phones and development today that did a good job of highlighting the promises and challenges of using mobile phone applications to improve people's lives. Clearly, mobiles apps are proliferating in the development space, especially in health, education, finance and the delivery of government services. But success is contingent on the right environment -- regulatory, cultural, informational and commercial -- to achieve scale beyond the scope of most pilot projects.

A recent visit here highlighted that the mobile money space in Zambia is busy now and likely to get busier soon. In addition to current services offered by Celpay and the Xapit service from Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco), Bharti Airtel (which recently purchased Zain's Africa operations) is eyeing a launch of mobile money service soon, while South Africa's MTN also appears to be mulling an entry.

Mobile phones, introduced in Uganda about 15 years ago, are becoming a key driver of development solutions in a range of areas-from health care to personal financial management to emergency service access.

Sierra Leone’s first mobile network was established in 1994 by U.K.-based Mobitel Sierra Leone Limited, which offered a radio-based telephony network and a mobile paging system throughout the country. But only recently did mobile phone use truly take off-and to such an extent that the days of landlines in Sierra Leone now appear to be waning.

In Colombia, the growth of information technology and the communication sector in the last 5 years clearly constitutes a radical transformation in the way in which we view and how we relate to the world.

In the last three years, the Colombian capital has seen the emergence of an informal street market for mobile phone minutes. At nearly every corner or shopping mall, you can see vendors selling mobile minutes alongside their typical offerings of cigarettes, candies and chips. This informal market has allowed many more people, especially from low-income neighborhoods, to have access to and use mobile phones when they are needed.